EFFECT OF CONDITIONING PARAMETERS

ON PELLET TEMPERATURE AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION

IN THE PROCESS OF PLANT MATERIAL PRESSING
Ryszard Kulig, Janusz Laskowski
Department of Food Processing Machines, University of Life Sciences in Lublin
Summary: This paper presents the results of an experiment investigating the effect
of conditioning parameters
on the temperature of the resulting pellet and the energy consumption in the
process of plant material pressing.
The obtained values were within the range of 64 to 90.5ºC for steam conditioning
and from 46.5 to 95ºC for
conditioning with the addition of water. It was found that the friction
coefficient during pressing is minimised to
a satisfactory level when the temperature of raw material before pressing is
raised to 70ºC. There exists a very
strong linear dependency between pellet temperature and pressing energy
consumption (r = -0.995; p<0.01 for
steam conditioning, and r = 0.996; p<0.01 for conditioning with the addition of
water).
Key words: pellet temperature, pressing energy, pelleting, conditioning.
Nomenclature:
E p – unit pressing energy expenditures [kJ*kg
-1
],
p – calculated level of significance,
P p – water vapour pressure [kPa],
r – Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient,
R
2
– coefficient of determination,
T g – temperature of pellet after passing through the die [
o
C],
T k – temperature of raw material after steam conditioning [
o
C],
W s – moisture content of raw material after conditioning with the addition of
water [%],
α i – adopted level of significance.
INTRODUCTION
The energy effectiveness of the pelleting process can be indirectly determined
based on the
temperature of the pellet after passing through the die. The increment in
temperature from its ini-tial
value is indicative of friction between the material and the walls of die
channels. According to
Welin [20], the temperature increment should not exceed 15ºC in the pelleting
process involving
steam conditioning. If the temperature increase is higher, the excess energy
demand for pressing is
converted into useless friction heat.
TEKA Kom. Mot. Energ. Roln. – OL PAN, 2008, 8a, 105–111
106 Ryszard Kulig, Janusz Laskowski
The range of changes in the temperature of the resulting pellet is determined by
the physical
and chemical properties of the processed material [4, 22] as well as by the
technical and techno-logical
parameters of the process [1, 17, 18]. Raw materials with a high content of starch
[2, 6],
protein [5] and, in particular, fat [9], have a lower friction coefficient than
materials with a high
fibre content [7, 19]. The temperature and moisture content of loose material
before pressing are
also significant in this context [3, 11, 15, 21]. In practice, the most desirable
values are within the
range of 45 ÷90
o
C and 13 ÷18% as regards moisture content [12, 13, 14, 16]. According to a study
conducted by Laskowski and Skonecki [10], an increase in raw material temperature
before press-ing
leads to a drop in compacting pressure due to changes in the coefficient of
friction between the
material and the walls of matrix openings.
This paper is a continuation of research conducted by the Department of Food
Processing
Machines at the University of Life Sciences in Lublin to investigate the effect of
physical and
chemical properties of plant material on the pressure agglomeration process. It
analyses the effect
of conditioning parameters on the temperature of the resulting pellet and energy
consumption in
the process of plant material pressing.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experimental materials comprised seven feed raw materials (barley, maize,
wheat, oats,
pea, lupine and dried lucerne) ground in a H-950 hammer mill equipped with a Φ 3mm
sieve. After
grinding, the material was brought to a constant moisture content of 14%. The
initial temperature
of the material was 20ºC.
The pelleting process involved steam conditioning and conditioning with an
addition of water
(cold pelleting). As regards steam conditioning, the studied material was brought
to five temperature
levels: 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90
o
C. The required temperature was obtained by treatment with water
vapour at five pressure levels: 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 kPa. For the purpose of
conditioning
with an addition of water, the material was treated with cold water and brought to
moisture content
levels of 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22%.
The experiment was performed on a test stand equipped with an LW 69 steam vapour
genera-tor,
a blade conditioner, an Amandus Kahl L-175 pellet mill (die with 4 mm mesh size,
20 mm in
thickness) and computer systems for the measurement of steam, heat and electric
energy consump-tion.
A detailed description of the test stand and the methods applied to determine
steam, heat and
electric energy consumption is presented in the referenced materials [8].
Pellet temperature was measured with the use of a laboratory thermometer with the
precision
of ±0.5
o
C. The resulting material was collected directly from the pressing unit into a
thermally insu-lated
vessel with a thermometer. The result was the mean temperature from ten
measurements.
The analysis of dependencies between the parameters of the pelleting process was
carried
out using the statistical procedures in STATISTICA application at a significance
level of α i = 0.05.
The form of equation was selected by means of backward step regression. The
significance of
regression equation coefficients was analysed with Student’s t-test. Model
adequacy was verified
with Fisher’s test.
RESULTS
The temperature of pelleted material after passing through the die, subject to
material tem-perature
after conditioning and water vapour pressure, is shown in Fig. 1. The obtained
values
107 EFFECT OF CONDITIONING PARAMETERS ON PELLET TEMPERATURE
ranged from 64 to 90.5ºC. The obtained results indicate that for most of the
analysed raw materi-als,
the friction coefficient during pressing is reduced to a satisfactory level when
the temperature
of material after conditioning is raised to 70ºC. The authors also noted that the
differences in the
temperature of various pelleted materials were significantly minimised as
conditioning temperature
increased. The above is probably due to greater heat intensity and a higher
moisture content of the
material under the applied conditioning parameters.
Pp [kPa]
T
g
[
o
C]
63
65
67
69
71
73
75
77
79
81
83
85
87
89
91
93
95
200 250 300 350 400
Pp [kPa]
200 250 300 350 400
Pp [kPa]
200 250 300 350 400
Pp [kPa]
200 250 300 350 400
Pp [kPa]
200 250 300 350 400
wheat
maize
oats
barley
pea
lupine
lucerne
Tk 50 o C Tk 60 o C Tk 70 o C Tk 80 o C Tk 90 o C
Fig. 1. Dependency between pellet temperature after passing through the die (Tg),
conditioning temperature (T k ) and water vapour pressure (P p )
As a result, when conditioning temperature is increased to 90ºC, pellet
temperature is lower
than hydrothermal processing temperature (except for lucerne). This is probably
due to the fact that
the process in which heat is collected from the pellet by evaporating water is
most intense under
those conditions.
The impact of water vapour pressure is also significant in the analysed case. The
increase in
pressure, in particular at lower conditioning temperatures, is always accompanied
by an increase in
pellet temperature. This is likely to be caused by the lower moisture content of
raw material when
higher water vapour pressure is applied at identical processing temperature. Yet
the observed dif-ferences
usually do not exceed 3ºC and are practically non-existent at a conditioning
temperature
of 90ºC. A quantitative specification of the determined dependencies is presented
in Tab. 1.
Table 1. Regression equations describing the effect of conditioning temperature (T
k )
and water vapour pressure (P p ) on the temperature of pellet after passing
through the die (T g )
Raw material Equation A BC D R
2
Wheat T g = - AT k
2
+ BT k - CP p + D 0.0054 1.1146 0.0091 26.8657 0.955
Maize T g = - AT k
2
+ BT k - CP p - D 0.0108 1.993 0.0133 11.7432 0.991
Barley T g = - AT k
2
+ BT k - CP p + D 0.0063 1.2622 0.0156 16.8032 0.988
Oats T g = BT k + CP p + D 0.4401 0.0155 39.2866 0.992
Pea T g = -AT k
2
- BT k + CP p + D 0.0027 0.1863 0.0112 76.7485 0.99
Lupine T g = BT k + CP p + D 0.3345 0.1101 50.1681 0.974
Lucerne T g = -AT k
2
+ BT k + CP p + D 0.0009 0.3248 0.0084 62.5738 0.988
108 Ryszard Kulig, Janusz Laskowski
The above observations are also validated by the results obtained in respect of
the cold pel-leting
process (Fig. 2). In this case, a higher moisture content of all the investigated
materials prior
to pressing decreases friction between the material and the walls of the pellet
mill die. Lucerne
pellet was characterised by the highest temperature (in both pelleting methods).
The above results
are intriguing because lucerne is marked by the highest moisture content after
steam conditioning,
yet due to its high fibre content (23.5%), the friction coefficient is highest
during lucerne press-ing.
Similar findings were reported in respect of materials with a low fat content
(wheat and pea).
Materials rich in fat, i.e. maize and lupine, are least sensitive to temperature
increase after pressing
in the die. The lubricating properties of fat are most visible at both lower
processing temperatures
(steam pelleting) and a lower moisture content of the material during cold
pelleting.
wheat
maize
oats
barley
pea
lupine
lucerne
W s [%]
T
g
[
o
C]
45
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
14 16 18 20 22
Fig. 2. Dependency between pellet temperature after passing through the die (Tg)
and the moisture content of
raw material (W s ) (conditioning with the addition of water)
Regression equations describing the effect of the raw material’s moisture content
on the
temperature of the resulting pellet are presented in Table 2.
Table 2. Regression equations describing the effect of raw material’s moisture
content (W s )
on pellet temperature after passing through the die (T g ) (cold pelleting)
Raw
material Equation A B CR
2
Wheat T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 0.1345 7.92 159.65 0.988
Maize T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 1.125 6.48 128.47 0.969
Barley T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 0.3869 16.11 216.2 0.992
Oats T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 0.1274 6.79 135.92 0.987
Pea T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 0.2988 13.11 196.76 0.983
Lupine T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 0.1458 6.75 126.4 0.987
Lucerne T g = AW s
2
– BW s + C 0.2399 11.45 206.85 0.976
109 EFFECT OF CONDITIONING PARAMETERS ON PELLET TEMPERATURE
The results of the study investigating the effect of pellet temperature on unit
pressing energy
expenditures are presented in Fig. 3 and 4. The obtained results point to a very
strong linear depen-dency
between the analysed parameters.
T g [ o C]
E
p
[kJ*
kg
-1
]
110
130
150
170
190
210
70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86
Fig. 3. Dependency between unit pressing energy expenditures (E p ) and pellet
temperature after passing thro-ugh
the die (Tg) (steam conditioning)
A very strong negative correlation (r= -0.995; p<0.01) was determined for steam
condition-ing,
while the conditioning process with the addition of water is indicative of a
positive correlation
(r=0.996; p<0.01)
T g [ o C]
E
p
[kJ*
kg
-1
]
170
190
210
230
250
270
290
310
50 54 58 62 66 70 74
Fig. 4. Dependency between unit pressing energy expenditures (E p ) and pellet
temperature after passing thro-ugh
the matrix (Tg) (conditioning with the addition of water)
110 Ryszard Kulig, Janusz Laskowski
The above dependencies can be illustrated by multiple linear regression models:
for steam conditioning:
E p = -6.34T g + 652.37 ; R
2
= 0.992, (1)
for conditioning with the addition of water:
E p = 5.183T g + 85.623; R
2
= 0.993. (2)
CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be drawn from the conducted experiment:
1. The applied conditioning parameters determine changes in pellet temperature and
pressing
energy consumption. The increase in material temperature during steam conditioning
minimises
friction resistance between the material and the walls of the matrix channel, thus
reducing the in-crement
in pellet temperature and decreasing energy consumption of the process. The effect
of the
properties of raw materials on the energy consumption of the process decreases as
the temperature
of conditioning exceeds 70°C.
2. Conditioning with the addition of water, regardless of its contents, leads to a
much higher
increase in the temperature of the pellet after pressing in the die (by 38,5°C on
average) than in
steam conditioning (by 10°C on average). The properties of raw materials affect an
increase in the
temperature and energy consumption of the process.
3. The temperature of the pellet obtained from raw materials with a high fat
content is on
average 8.5% lower (steam conditioning) than the temperature of the pellet
produced from raw ma-terials
with a high fibre content and 33% lower in comparison with conditioning with the
addition
of water. The lubricating properties of fat are most visible at both lower
conditioning temperatures
(steam pelleting) and a lower moisture content of the material during cold
pelleting.
4. The increment in the temperature of the pellet after passing through the die in
comparison
with the temperature of the raw material prior to pressing is a good predictor of
energy consumption
of the pressing process due to a very strong linear dependency between those
parameters.
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WP Ł YW WARUNKÓW KONDYCJONOWANIA
NA TEMPERATUR Ę GRANULATU
I ENERGOCH Ł ONNO ŚĆ PRASOWANIA MATERIA Ł ÓW RO Ś LINNYCH
Streszczenie. W pracy przedstawiono wyniki bada ń wp ł ywu warunków
kondycjonowania na temperatur ę otrzy-mywanego
granulatu w powi ą zaniu z energoch ł onno ś ci ą procesu prasowania materia ł ów
ro ś linnych. Uzyskane
warto ś ci zawiera ł y si ę w przedziale od 64 do 90,5
o
C dla kondycjonowania parowego i od 46,5 do 95
o
C dla
kondycjonowania z dodatkiem wody. Stwierdzono, i ż wzrost temperatury materia ł u
przed prasowaniem do
warto ś ci 70
o
C niweluje w sposób zadawalaj ą cy warto ść wspó ł czynnika tarcia w czasie
prasowania. Wykazano
istnienie bardzo silnej liniowej zale ż no ś ci pomi ę dzy temperatur ą granulatu
a energoch ł onno ś ci ą prasowania
(r= -0,995; p<0,01 dla kondycjonowania parowego i r=0,996; p<0,01 dla
kondycjonowania z dodatkiem
wody).
S ł owa kluczowe: temperatura granulatu, energia prasowania, granulowanie,
kondycjonowanie.